♫♪ somesurprises - alt

Blessed are we to be spiritually fulfilled by somesurprises. Does alt move you? Does it lift your troubled soul? Does it reverberate from cathedral rafters in celestial tones? Is it some sort of holy narcotic?

The Seattle neo-kraut-gazers’ new three-track EP on Doom Trip is a head-engulfing cloudburst of gently propulsive energy. The four(ish)-piece band’s first release since 2017’s serious dreams on Eiderdown finds Natasha El-Sergany and company traversing paths blazed by some of my all-time favorite bands, most especially Yo La Tengo. And folks, let me tell you, somesurprises can “hang with the big dogs”! (Did I just turn into a frat boy there? Yuck.)

“Low on Sleep” is the only track featuring El-Sergany’s voice, and it’s just as lovely as Georgia Hubley’s or Laetitia Sadier’s. Beyond that, “Paolo and Francesca” (kind of like “Pablo and Andrea,” am I right? Just saying) shimmers with nocturnal radiance, but “Alt” is where the real action is. The title track’s nine and a half minutes blaze a motorik causeway straight outta Neu! ’75, punctuated throughout by overdriven guitars. You know Ira Kaplan totally had a copy of Neu! ’75 as a teenager! (He’s sixty now. I feel so old.)

There’s so much feel-goodery packed into alt that I dare you to remain earthbound, weighted by your troubles. I think you will find your outlook much improved by the time alt’s twenty-one minutes conclude. And yeah, that’s a heckuva generous EP length. Blessed indeed are we to be spiritually fulfilled by somesurprises. Rise into the glory of the infinite momentum.